Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 8-9

I gasp from pain as I hold my recently healed arm to my chest before glancing at the door to my room again.

All I did was slip up slightly when moving my mana through my magical membrane and I ended up with the entire magical membrane shattering in an instant.

It’s honestly kind of scary how just a simple mistake like that can make me end up coughing out blood that instantly forces itself back down my throat to heal, followed by my skin suddenly burning off before restoring itself again.

And yet, I have to try again if I want to get any better.

I’m still not really sure why my mana arcs are allowed to grow and train despite still being immortal, but at least that also seems to go for my magical membrane as well. So I can try again as much as I want.

Before starting again, I look around my room, paying special attention to the high quality of everything.

I wonder how fancy the advanced course dorms are?

Maybe I should ask Amelia at some point.

Anyways, putting those thoughts aside for the moment, I return to my practice with a look of determination on my face.

The next morning, I wake up to the sound of chatter coming from the common room of the suite.

Does Aidan have a guest over or something?

I get up from my bed before dressing myself and cracking open my door to find Aidan and Sophia both sitting in the lounge portion of the room watching the news.

Huh, guess that isn’t too surprising. Not with their obvious attraction to each other.

Anyways, my attention is drawn towards the tv as I hear what’s being said on it, “-one of the eleven Class S magicians in the entire world! And we have him here with us!!!”

On the screen is a woman with a mic held up to her face. The woman has long brown hair, a tall figure, and brown eyes, and is standing in some sort of fancy-looking hotel room.

She moves to the side with a slight bow before handing the mic in her hand to a man with brown hair and green eyes, with a similar appearance to Sophia. Although he has a slightly sharper looking face as he frowns while standing next to a tall table with a glass of wine in his hands, wearing a fancy looking outfit. The outfit has very little of the nation’s usual black and is instead chock-full of a blue colors.

Actually, it’s kind of similar to Alexis’s outfit, except a lot less tight fitting, and more practical. It has a light blue metallic armor with magi-tech plating able to be seen underneath it, along with a deep blue cloak over the entire set, and a completely filled-in star on the center back of his cloak.

I can definitely see the resemblance between Sophia and the Class S water magician. Even if she’s technically from a branch family.

“Would you mind sharing some words with us about the Battle of the Forgotten Pass from a couple years back, Archibald?” the news woman politely says before he accepts the mic and raises it to his mouth.

My eye twitches slightly at the mention of the battle that led to my disease, and then ultimately to becoming the doctor’s little test subject.

Archibald Winters answers in a gruff tone of voice, “It was a close battle that cost us the lives of thousands of our soldiers, and even hundreds of our magicians. The Collective Kingdoms decided to send both of their Class S magicians in a surprise assault on our fortress at the opening of the pass and were able to massacre most of our forces there before I could arrive with Afvalder to fight them off.”

A look of interest flashes across the reporter’s face as she presses for more, “And what about the strange phenomenon that occurred in the Mountains of the Lost?”

Archibald turns a dark look towards the woman, causing her to noticeably shiver before he says, “That was an unfortunate result of the battle with the opposing nation’s Class S magicians. None of the scientists that the Republic’s had look into it have figured out how it happened, outside of our battle being the driving force that damaged reality and let the strange wave of time and space mana flood into the mountains.”

At this point, I walk straight past the two sitting on the couch, completely ignoring their greeting towards me as I continue towards the door to our suite. But right before I reach it, I hear the reporter say one last thing.

“It’s a good thing there weren’t any people there that day, otherwise it could have been bad. But what would you have done if there were any?”

This line makes me freeze in place for an instant.

The man simply looks at her and says, “We would have taken care of them.”

A shiver runs down my spine at his words, despite how ‘good’ they sound.

I then begin to leave the room to go on a walk as the entire incident floods into my memory.

Right before the time of the incident

“You’re going hiking again?” mom asks me with an incredulous look on her face. “But it’s winter!”

I simply shrug my shoulders before retorting, “Doesn’t matter. It’s peaceful up there, and my hikes are the only times I can let myself relax.”

Mom just stares at me for a few seconds while messing with a lock of her long brown hair, her blue eyes seemingly drilling a hole through my own until dad walks into the hall and says, “Just let him go. He’s not going to be able to do this anymore in a couple of years, so we might as well let him do what he pleases now.”

Mom continues staring at me for a little bit longer before sighing and turning around while saying, “Fine. But be back by at least 1 A.M. this time.”

I nod my head despite her not being able to see me before turning around and walking out the front door. After that, I step into my car and start the engine.

Last time I came home at around 2 A.M., but that was mostly because I got distracted by Amelia calling me on the way over there. I couldn’t just hang up on her, and the mountains don’t have cell service, so it delayed my arrival at the mountains.

And I wasn’t just going to shorten my time there because of it.

But this time shouldn’t be the same, so I’ll get home on time.

And with that thought in mind, I pull my slightly older-looking, black car out of the driveway and begin making my way through the usual route towards the mountains.

After parking my car in the parking garage located a few hours walk away from the base of the mountains and locking it, I make my way through the forest between the garage and the mountains with my usual black coat and boots on, keeping me insulated from the cold and snow covering the ground. As I walk, I raise my head to look in between the branches of the trees at the falling snow around me.

It’s always so peaceful out here.

Makes me wonder why humans go around destroying this peace just to build more infrastructure…

I continue walking for over three hours until I find myself at the edge of a cliff on the mountain overlooking the city far in the distance.

After looking out at the beautiful view for a few minutes, I sit down with my legs hanging off of the cliff before lying flat on my back on the snow-covered rock and looking up at the falling snow.

Soon enough, I find myself nearly drifting off to sleep, only to be startled awake as a loud explosion echoes from somewhere deeper into the mountains.

I jerk to a sitting position before climbing up to my feet and turning to look, only to find a large amount of dust, ice, rocks, and… are those flying trees?

My thoughts are interrupted as I realize they are indeed flying trees, and they are indeed flying straight towards me. But right as they make it within several meters of me, a strange noise, similar to that of a portal opening echoes from around me and everything suddenly stops moving entirely. Soon after that, two strange energies – both different types of mana based off of what I can sense of them – begin to flood the area. One of the energies is a strange mixture of light purple and blue, while the other is a pure, dark purple.

However, after looking at the energy for a few seconds as it approaches inwards from all sides of the mountain, I realize two things. One, I can’t move. And two, it doesn’t feel like any mana I’ve seen before. Not in the mana’s affinity, and not in the overall feel I get from it.

A person’s mana feels controlled, even when it’s out of control. But this mana…

It feels wild.

Which likely means it’s natural mana.

I try to move forwards, away from the mana, but I still can’t seem to move from my current position.

Almost as if I were locked in place. Not a single muscle able to move, outside of my brain apparently. Which is weird, but it’s not the time to think about that.

The two types of natural mana begin to converge together somehow, which from what I’ve learned in school shouldn’t even be possible. Meanwhile, strange cracking sounds begin to resonate throughout the area, similar to glass shattering.

And here I am, unable to do anything as I watch the now-converged mana continue getting closer and closer towards me until…

SHIIIIIIITTTT!!!!

As soon as the mana touches my body, every single part of me – not even just the parts that it’s reached so far – begin to feel like they’re on fire, cold, being stretched apart, and ripped apart. All at the same time.

Being too much pain for me to handle all at once, my vision quickly begins to fade before I lose consciousness entirely.

I return to consciousness with a groan, slowly blinking my eyes open, only to realize that nothing hurts.

Like, at all.

At that thought, I fully open my eyes to look around.

And what I find just ends up leaving me even more confused.

In front of me is the same tree that I had seen earlier, except warped in a strange way while lying on the ground. I also find myself far from the mountain, despite having been there before…

Wait, I actually remember everything. Don’t people usually have some sort of fog in their head, or at least temporary memory loss after something like that?

Or am I just being stupid?

Deciding to put that thought aside for the moment, I look down, only for my eyes to widen in surprise as I find two large, gaping holes in my coat and shirt, one on each end of them. But despite that, there isn’t any blood to be seen.

Okay, what the fuck just happened? And how am I going to explain this to mom?

I look around my surroundings again, at the parking garage all the way at the bottom of the mountain, which is over three hours away from the cliff by foot. At the damaged tree that I find myself lying up against, along with all of the destroyed trees and tree limbs making a path over here for a few dozen meters.

Okay, seriously. What happened?

After looking around for a few more seconds, I begin to climb to my feet, only to grunt slightly as I slice my hand on a shard of rock that was hidden in the snow. Right as I’m about to ignore the cut for the moment, I witness a shocking sight. One that should be impossible.

The blood on the rock and my hand… flies through the air back into my hand. With the wound sealing itself up right after.

I stare at my hand for nearly a minute, raising it to my face and turning it this way and that with a blank look on my face.

Okay, I might have a bigger problem than explaining to mom how I got a hole in my clothes.

The present

Just like with the memory of how I first met Aidan and Amelia, this memory is also embedded in my mind; never to go away.

With that thought in mind, I begin to walk towards the dorm to get my sword and sniper rifle.

Maybe the instructor can answer some of my questions now. Assuming he is even in his classroom.

And if he can’t? Then maybe I can at least use his shooting range.